- UK: Police arrest man over threat to shoot Farage
Source: South China Morning Post [Hong Kong]
“A man who threatened on social media in May to shoot Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage was arrested, London police said on Wednesday, as concerns grow over the security of politicians following the killing of Ann Widdecombe, a former member of parliament. The man was arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of sending threatening communications to a member of parliament, the Metropolitan Police said. ‘I am going to shoot you in the head if you win,’ he allegedly told Farage on social media, according to the Telegraph newspaper. The July 8 killing of Widdecombe, who was a member of the anti-immigration Reform UK, has led the party to call for better protection of its members.” (07/15/26)
- Trump says ICE gang won’t halt traffic stop harassment after recent murders despite earlier order
Source: CBC News [Canadian state media]
“U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday said federal immigration agents won’t end vehicle stops, one day after officials announced a temporary pause in such stops after agents [murdered] two men in Texas and Maine. ‘We must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of ICE’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP!’ Trump wrote in a social media post. On Tuesday, Trump administration officials said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency had ordered its officers to suspend most vehicle stops around the country after two men were [murdered] by ICE agents during such stops six days apart.” (07/15/26)
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/trump-ice-traffic-stops-fatal-shootings-9.7270653
- Morocco: Regime releases dissident journalist
Source: The New Arab [UK]
“A Moroccan prosecutor said on Wednesday he had ordered the release of veteran journalist and political commentator Ali Lmrabet after questioning him, although an investigation continues following allegations of defamation and libel. Lmrabet, 66, who holds French nationality and lives in Spain, was arrested on Sunday on arrival at Tangier airport. He is a political commentator on social media and has been an outspoken critic of Morocco’s political system for decades. … In 2003, Lmrabet was jailed after being convicted on charges that included offending King Mohammed VI. In 2005, a Moroccan court banned him from practising journalism in Morocco for 10 years.” (07/15/26)
https://www.newarab.com/news/morocco-releases-dissident-journalist-ali-lmrabet
- America’s Gerontocracy Goes Deeper than Aging Politicians
Source: Ludwig von Mises Institute
by Connor O’Keeffe“[I]t’s easy to understand why many have increasingly come to consider the United States to be a gerontocracy, or a society ruled by old people. As with just about anything online, there are sophisticated and unsophisticated versions of this observation. The unsophisticated version simply points to the multitude of examples of politicians remaining in office long after most people would have retired from just about any line of work and concludes that the prevalence of exceptionally elderly politicians is hampering the government’s ability to function properly. … The more sophisticated version of the ‘America is a gerontocracy’ narrative focuses less on the politicians themselves and more on what the government is doing. … government programs are actively transferring vast amounts of wealth from younger generations to older generations who are, on average, much wealthier.” (07/15/26)
https://mises.org/mises-wire/americas-gerontocracy-goes-deeper-aging-politicians
- America Is Failing Its Own Free Speech Standards
Source: The Next Move
by Sarah McLaughlin“You’re relaxing with a cup of tea, winding down from your day, and thinking about tomorrow’s errands. And then you hear a ring at the doorbell. Followed quickly by another. And another. When you finally open the door, you’re shocked to see not a neighbor or a delivery driver, but a federal agent. He knows what you said about the government on Instagram, and he’s here giving you notice to shut up. A chilling encounter like this might dissuade even the most dogged critic from speaking their mind. In the United States, home of the First Amendment—a uniquely robust protection against censorship compared with other democracies’ rules—this kind of incursion should be unimaginable. These days, it isn’t, as a new lawsuit against Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials makes painfully clear.” (07/15/26)
https://www.thenextmove.org/p/america-is-failing-its-own-free-speech
- Takes time to build liberty cathedral
Source: Eastern New Mexico News
by Kent McManigal“There are times you’ll begin, or join already-in-progress, a project and discover it’s bigger, more difficult, and is going to take longer than you expected. Often, much longer. Sometimes you’ll realize it won’t be completed in your lifetime – if ever. And it’s still worth it. Your part is to be a vital link in a long chain of people down through the years, working toward something you’ll never see the benefit of. Think of all those nameless laborers who helped build awe-inspiring Medieval cathedrals. Such is the case with spreading liberty. It turns out, spreading a love for liberty is a bigger job than I’d thought. A lot harder, too. As many before me had also discovered.” (07/15/26)
- An Iran Agreement Honored Only in the Breach
Source: The Atlantic
by Vivian Salama“The U.S.-Iran war was supposed to be over when President Trump signed a memorandum of understanding last month at a dinner table in the Lower Gallery of Versailles. But Trump has a famously flexible definition of what constitutes a binding contract, Iran feels that it has little to lose from further hostilities, and the two nations have essentially remained at war ever since. The agreement was designed to make permanent a cease-fire and to usher in a negotiating period of up to 60 days to settle the many disputes at the root of the conflict. About halfway through the 60-day window, the memorandum’s 14 terms have been honored almost entirely in the breach. The only clause that took immediate effect that has not been violated is the one that says the two sides will keep talking. (Even that requires an asterisk …)” (07/15/26)
- Donald Trump Is Not a Liar
Source: Libertarian Institute
by Thomas Eddlem“President Donald Trump, broadly speaking, is not at base a liar. Sure, almost every word out of his mouth is a lie. You don’t have to go back to his marriage vows to prove this; a simple survey of his 2024 campaign promises versus his results during the first eighteen months of his second term show it. He promised no foreign wars and bombed ten countries; he promised to release the Epstein Files and fought it; he promised to end warrantless FISA searches and lobbied to keep them going; he promised DOGE and tariff rebates to the American people and abandoned both, etc. Presidents telling lies are nothing new; they’ve become an American tradition. But I learned an important lesson a few years back about how Trump in particular is different from a now-defunct podcast called Unfilter. The podcast hosts posited that Trump was not a liar but instead is a bullshitter.” (07/15/26)
https://libertarianinstitute.org/articles/donald-trump-is-not-a-liar
- Can We Lose the Same War Twice? With Trump, Anything’s Possible
Source: The New Republic
by Joe Cirincione“The first phase of Donald Trump’s war on Iran ended in defeat and humiliation. Iran emerged battered but stronger, with two new weapons: control of the Strait of Hormuz and a demonstrated drone and missile force that can cripple the economies of its Persian Gulf neighbors and wreak havoc on U.S. bases. Both are new instruments of power more usable than nuclear weapons. … So why did Trump restart the war? As Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan write in their new book, Regime Change, ‘Unlike recent Presidents, Trump had shown he was entirely comfortable using extraordinary presidential powers on a whim.’ Those extraordinary powers include the ability to launch waves of destructive attacks solely on his order. But these attacks, now numbering hundreds of sorties, are pointless. If it were possible to bomb Iran into submission, it would have worked the first time.” (07/15/26)
https://newrepublic.com/article/213066/iran-war-trump-lose-twice
- Why Planned Parenthood Should Not Receive Federal Funds
Source: Future of Freedom Foundation
by Laurence M Vance“Planned Parenthood should not receive federal funds for one simple reason: it is unconstitutional. Nowhere does the Constitution authorize the federal government to spend one penny on sexual and reproductive health care or any other form of health care. Planned Parenthood should not receive federal funds for any reason because it is not the proper role of government at any level to fund sexual and reproductive health care or any other form of health care. This means it should not fund agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), or the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); programs like Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare, or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP); or services like community health centers, vaccinations, family planning, medical research, HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment, or nutrition guidelines.” (07/15/26)
https://www.fff.org/explore-freedom/article/why-planned-parenthood-should-not-receive-federal-funds/
- On the Importance of First Principles
Source: Law & Liberty
by Roger Pilon“It’s good that [Tal] Fortgang has gone after what he calls the counterintuitive Nejaime/Siegel democracy-promoting approach to protecting unenumerated rights, which is likely going nowhere. But his critique is itself a good example of what happens when a critic jumps into the middle of a complex issue and then tries to work his way out without ever going to the first principles of the matter. True, Fortgang seems to have something of a first principle, at least by implication. It’s that democracy trumps liberty, mostly. Problem is, that’s not the Constitution’s first principle …” (07/15/26)
https://lawliberty.org/on-the-importance-of-first-principles/
- Liberals Have Relaxed About Trump Because They Trust Him To Keep The Wars Going
Source: Caitlin Johnstone
by Caitlin Johnstone“Have you noticed how the liberal establishment hasn’t been nearly as emotional and outraged about Trump’s second term as they were about his first? Now that he’s the president who bombed Iran, the entire western political/media class is cool with him. … They’re no longer worried that he’s going to promote ‘isolationist’ foreign policy and roll back the US war machine. He went to war with Iran, so they like him now. Because they know he’s fully compliant.” (07/15/26)
- An Evergreen Warning About Social Security
Source: The Daily Economy
by Thomas Savidge“As Social Security reaches its ninety-first anniversary this August, it’s running out of room for evasion. The 2026 Trustees Report projects Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) trust fund will be depleted by the fourth quarter of 2032, after which dedicated revenue would only cover 78 percent of scheduled benefits. On a combined basis with Disability Insurance, reserves would run out in late 2034, with 83 percent payable then and 65 percent by 2100. The current schedule and financing cannot survive under existing law. That is the setting for Romina Boccia and Ivane Nachkebia’s Reimagining Social Security. Nearly a year after its release, the book is more relevant than ever.” (07/15/26)
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/an-evergreen-warning-about-social-security/
- Alzheimer’s stole pieces of our lives. A new treatment is giving us a fighting chance
Source: Fox News
by Dr. Brent Beasley“Millions of Americans are rightfully terrified of Alzheimer’s disease. They have witnessed its devastating impact on their families and friends. But we, five patients from different corners of the country, offer our stories to bring hope to others. We reclaimed our lives from this devastating disease by getting diagnosed early enough to benefit from new anti-amyloid treatments. Our lives show these new treatments can slow progression and add meaningful time. Like millions of Americans, we followed expert guidelines to reduce the risk of cognitive decline: exercising regularly, following healthy diets, staying mentally and socially active, and building lives around serving our families and communities. And still, Alzheimer’s came for us. … For us, treatment has been a lifeline.” (07/15/26)
https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/alzheimers-stole-pieces-lives-new-treatment-giving-fighting-chance
- Nazi Economics: Ideas and Policies
Source: Bet On It
“In economics, Phil Magness is probably most famous for his synthetic control paper (with Michael Makovi) showing that Marx only became a socialist superstar after his fanatical followers conquered Russia. In this conversation, Phil and I discuss my recent pieces on ‘How socialist was Nazism?'” (07/15/26)
- Reason Interview: Spencer Greenberg
Source: Reason
“How Much Control Do You Have Over Your Mind?” (07/15/26)
https://reason.com/podcast/2026/07/15/how-much-control-do-you-have-over-your-mind/
- Checks & Balances, 07/15/26
Source: Checks & Balances
“Dr. Lindsay Chervinsky on the fragility of the republic at 250.” (07/15/26)
https://chkbal.substack.com/p/it-doesnt-just-survive-on-autopilot